Just about everyone is interested in losing weight. Depending which website you go to, you’ll find all sorts of advice about what to put into your mouth…or what to do with your muscles to burn fat. Guess what? Both dieting and proper exercise are essential to losing weight; at least the kind of weight loss that stands the test of time.

In this short article, I’ll tell of my experience with a type of exercise that’s getting all of the ‘buzz’ these days. I’m speaking of Interval Training, and you also can use it to lose the stubborn weight that dieting alone doesn’t seem to budge.

I use my bicycle to burn calories, and ultimately fat, by increasing my metabolism. While this news isn’t anything new to anyone who’s even glanced at exercising topics, you may not be as aware of the style of exercise that keeps the metabolism fires burning for hours after a workout is completed.

That style is called ‘interval workouts’…broadly defined as a type of workout in which there are surges of effort that can only be sustained for relatively short periods of time, interspersed with periods of active rest.

We’ll get to a few examples of this type of exercise later, which will clear up some of the details.

Keep The Fat-Burning Furnace Going Longer

It was over fifteen years ago that I discovered that exercise performed at a constant level of exertion wasn’t getting the job done when it came to maintaining my desired weight. When I incorporated interval workouts into my exercise arsenal, the weight started to slowly melt off.

Along with the pleasant surprise of weight loss, I noticed that my resting heart-rate (a measure of metabolism) remained elevated for hours after the workout was completed. What do you know…I was burning extra calories while watching TV after dinner.

That’s the ‘magic’ of interval training. You’ll reap the weight loss benefits of exercise long after the heavy breathing stops.

So What Is This Interval Training?

Hard core endurance athletes have been using interval training for more than half a century. If you had any intention of getting anywhere near the Olympic games, you’d better be doing a healthy dose of interval training.

But recently this style has become known to the ‘garden variety’ exerciser.

Simply stated, it’s a workout in which the effort is altered from easy to hard to easy to hard to easy…you get the picture.I do my interval workouts on a cycle trainer, which is similar to an exercise bike; but you can use just about any form of exercise that moves large groups of muscles.

Without further explanation, let me just present a couple of examples of interval workouts…which of course you’d clear with your doctor before jumping into :-).

Here’s a toned-down version of the type of interval workout that a competitive bike racer would do:

10 minutes of easy effort to warm-up.

5 minutes of moderate effort, followed by 3 minutes of easy effort.

4 minutes of effort a bit harder than the 5 minute effort, followed by 2 minutes of easy effort.

3 minutes of effort a bit harder than the 4 minute effort, followed by a minute and a half of easy effort.

2 minutes of effort a bit harder than the 3 minute effort, followed by one minute easy effort.

1 minute of hard effort.

10 minutes of easy effort to warm-down.

Here’s an example of a simple interval workout, which would be categorized as a High-intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout.

10 minutes of easy effort to warm-up.

10 minutes alternating 10 seconds of very hard effort with 10 seconds of very easy effort.

10 minutes of easy effort to warm-down.

Optimize Your Exercise Efforts By Doing Intervals

I hope you’ll be encouraged to renew the ‘exercise leg’ of your journey toward healthy weight loss by including some interval training into your workouts.

The interval style has been around for a very long time, basically because it’s a very powerful way to achieve the most ‘bang for your buck’ in the exercise arena. When that bang is taking aim at the stubborn fat that you’ve been struggling with for a long time…it’s a very good thing!

About the Author: Dr. Ron Fritzke has been a chiropractor in Mount Shasta, California for close to 25 years. In addition to his private practice, he is on the sports medicine team at the College of the Siskiyous. When he’s not riding one of his four bikes, he’s writing about cycling products on his website, Cycling-Review.com. He’s written reviews on everything from the Cycleops fluid trainer to bike shorts.

I’ve definately heard of this. My cardiologist recommended more of this type of excercise than one consistent speed. Even if you are walking. Start slow and increase to speed walk and then slow down again.

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